The bodies of 18 young Iraqi Shiites taken off a bus and executed last month while seeking work at a U.S. base have been located in a field near the city of Mosul, police said Thursday.

According to The AP, police said the men, who ranged in age from 14 to 20, were shot on Dec. 8 after stopping their two mini-buses about 50 kilometers west of Mosul.

Their hands were tied behind their back and each was shot in the head, police said. All of the men were Shiite Muslims from Baghdad's northern neighborhood of Kadhimiya who had been hired by an Iraqi contractor to work at an American base in Mosul.

In a separate execution-style incident, the bodies of three Jordanian truck drivers shot in the head were discovered on the outskirts of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, it was reported Thursday. "This is the fate of anyone who cooperates with the Americans," said a note placed on one of the bodies.

Meanwhile, a Marine was killed in action Thursday while conducting operations in the Al Anbar province in western Iraq, the US Army said.